The Transfer Student
by AlliCats212
Summary: It was a long Christmas that year. On one half of the world, a young woman got earth-shattering news, and on the other, a young man suffered through his doting parents' affections. "We're going to Japan?" It is this instant when an indescribably large chain of events began between the two.
1. Chapter 1: Intro Arc

Saiki : The Transfer

Summary: It was a long Christmas that year. On one half of the world, a young woman got earth-shattering news, and on the other, a young man suffered through his doting parents' affections.

"We're going to Japan?" It is this instant when an indescribably large chain of events began between the two.  
=====

It was cold that Christmas, even for Ohio. It hadn't been an easy year for Camillia's family. Her dad had been jobless for a month already, meaning that Christmas by itself hadn't been met with much fanfare. The news that their family would be moving back in with their relatives just in time for sophomore year was much more abrupt. Camillia had visited Japan several times over the years, as the daughter of first-generation immigrants, her parents continued to have strong ties with their family.  
-

The car was packed, the apartment was quiet. Her sister slept as they began to drive towards the airport, leaving behind the house of Camillia's childhood. Through the tears in her blue eyes, state lines and capital went rushing by as the plane ascended. Everything seemed to be moving too fast. Their plane left their life behind as easily as a tree dropped its leaves in the fall. Camillia wouldn't miss Ohio's rain or snow, but her life, friends, _home_ was there.

 _Everything's going to be better. Better than the mess we left back home._ She thought, with a certainty she didn't feel.

Moving via plane is a hard thing. You have to compress your entire life into one or two suitcases, seal it, and hope it doesn't get lost in a mass transit system. Through the layovers and international airport's hustle and bustle, you trust complete strangers to get your old life to your new life. Camillia felt similarly lost, guided through the crowd by her older sister, a calm and confident presence in the midst of losing both of their old lives.

Japan wasn't completely foreign, she grew up listening and learning Japanese, she visited, she marveled the sights of Tokyo. But she would not be living in Tokyo. Instead, she would be living about a hundred miles away.

Camillia always hated traveling.  
==

The other Christmas was average. Barely worth passing mention in the obligatory "how were your holidays" conversations. Saiki always hated those anyway, trusting someone other than himself to chime in and save him the trouble.

Saiki received what he always did: coffee jello from his mother and new glasses that he didn't need from his father. His brother sent him a card.

Saiki didn't really understand holidays. Families gathered to fight at a table rather than across the phone. So many horrible mental insults and disappointed parents really didn't mix well with telepathy. Granted, Christmas with his parents was not exactly quiet, but at least it was an expected annoyance, rather than a sudden uptick in household noise.

Christmas hailed New Year's, which really just indicated time was passing sequentially to Saiki. He would be entering his sophomore year once next fall rolled around. The only New Year's wish he half-heartedly gave was that of normalcy. Saiki understood that a request like that was laughably impossible, but it was personal tradition to at least try.

 _Good grief. Can I go now._

Crowds were miserable for telepaths. Overlapping thoughts created a cacophony of noise, crescendoing in the ringing bell. Saiki was always roped into going to the shrine, tolerating it as eccentric parenting and then dismissing it.  
_

The new semester began today at PK Academy. By ignoring his father's moaning about being late, Saiki managed to grab his scarf and leave with little fanfare.

By all accounts, Saiki was average: grades, sports, and looks. In general, he strived to be as normal as possible to avoid the attention of his peers and to avoid the possibility of them finding out about his abilities. Which is what he needed during high school if he aspired to have any semblance of a normal life. Unfortunately, Saiki seemed to be a magnet for all kinds of things, trouble and attention included.

This particular day was relatively uneventful until lunch break. It was then that he noticed a new voice amongst the usual crowd.

"What kinds of clubs are held here?" The words sounded strange, having a strange lilt to them. It wasn't the lilt that had caught Saiki's notice, it was that he could only hear a few Japanese words emanating from her mind, while the rest seemed to be primarily English. While he could understand almost any dialect related to Japanese, he had never bothered to learn English.

 _A new transfer is touring. She's from America. I understand._

It's not uncommon to have transfer students touring the school the semester before they start, but as far as Saiki was aware, there had never been an international student transfer. PK Academy wasn't a great school, boasting only a large set of one-dimensional characters and a nice gym.

Saiki lost track of the conversation as his interest fell, merely noting the tones of her mental voice so as not to be startled if she joined their year. The entire mental exchange took a few seconds, and by the end of lunch, Saiki had all but dismissed her as someone either not in his year or someone he might never see again.  
==

Camillia's first impression of PK Academy was that she missed her Ohio high school. She'd barely settled into Japan and already her parents were pushing her to tour the school she would be starting in the Fall. Until a week ago, she had been stubbornly living out of her suitcase, a small form of resistance to moving to Japan. Small, but reassuring. By telling herself that this was temporary, just until America became the grass that was greener, she had been coping with the utter annoyance of living with four of her parents.

Camillia's family had moved in with her mother's sister, Hanabi, and her husband, Miskuni. Considering that the last time they had seen Camillia was when she was twelve, they assumed the strict parent stereotype. Hanabi was loving, stiflingly so.

 _I don't need two mothers. I appreciate the sentiment, but seriously, lay off._

The rivalry between Hanabi and her mother was similarly unappreciated. Camillia had begun developing some kind of spider sense in order to avoid becoming the object of their 'affection' (read as 'competition'). Her sister was still better at it than her, leading to a plethora of copied mechanisms and excuses that were obviously not right.

Once she had used the excuse that she had to go fill out university paperwork in order to escape, which was equally ridiculous and funny. The excuse was such an automatic flight response that she hadn't had time to modify it to fit her status as a high school sophomore.

So, to escape that atmosphere, she agreed to tour the school. It was fairly underwhelming, with a total of two buildings and identical rows of classrooms. The students here looked more Japanese than her and had different, more conservative style uniforms. It was difficult to say whether that was attributable to the weather or the culture.

In Ohio, there were no uniforms, just a dress code that was rarely enforced and abided by even more rarely. It was always some kind of inevitable scandal when someone was forced to change clothes in her old high school. Camillia guessed that would one of the easier changes to get used to here.

Since they were touring in the middle of the day, she got to observe at least one identifiable class change: lunch. The classroom doors slid open (another change, no more slamming), setting loose a small trickle of students that wanted to brave the outdoors to get lunch. Chatter drifted out of the rooms and peering into one revealed that there were only about fifteen students to a classroom.

 _I wonder which will be mine in the fall. Hopefully, it will have windows and I'll get to sit near them. Almost all of my classrooms from last semester felt like caves._

Realizing that the tour guide had fallen silent sometime in the past minute, she recovered with a perfunctory question: "What kinds of clubs are held here?" Her Japanese was a little rusty with disuse, resulting in a heavier accent than she would have liked, but it got the job done well enough.

Conversation successfully salvaged, Camillia began looking for a chance to escape the tour early, preferably before they walked outside to get to the gym complex. By Ohio standards, it was windy. By Japanese standards, it was absolutely frigid outside. The tour guide looked ready to cry with relief when she suggested that she had seen enough gyms in her life. The guide led her back to the front office and dropped here in the hands of the kind and capable secretary.

Chewing on a mint, Camillia texted her sister: "Please come get me. The tours been kinda a bust." She then received the sympathetically predictable reply: "Suck it up buttercup. I'll be there when I said I would."

Camillia loved Sora, but her personality could be challenging at the best of times. Sora had always been an unmovable object in her life and in Ohio they had been roommates, increasing the importance of their closeness. Sora was always on some kind of self-imposed schedule, allotting exactly the amount of time it took to get places, accounting for traffic, and she had a scary sense of direction to go along with that. As a result, she rarely got lost, always showed up 'on time' (five minutes early in her world) and well dressed. Camillia, on the other hand, was regularly late to important things, got lost in department stores, and got stuck in traffic with scary frequency. Despite this contrary depiction, both of them got along startlingly well.

No one had ever quite understood their dynamic from the outside, and at first glance, others often assumed that they hated each other. Their mom even fell victim, telling them to stop fighting, even when they were merely having a discussion.  
_

Sora showed up right when she said she would, pulling off the road in order to pick Camillia up.

"How was the tour?"

"Like I said, kinda a bust. The tour guide led me around, I saw a couple classrooms and such. Not really all that eventful."

Sora nodded and then eased out into traffic, sliding away from PK Academy and all of the social stress it will represent come fall.  
==

Saiki ended his day quietly, shuffling out of class, grabbing his shoes and walking outside, firing up his pyrokinesis. He noted two people thinking in English were driving away in an old car, and then began his walk home.

A/N: This is my first fanfiction for this series! The formatting was being annoying so it took longer than expected to write! I'll probably switch to first person once Saiki and Camillia start interacting so that its easier to read. Hope you like it.

Read and review, please and thank you!


	2. Chapter 2: Intro Arc

Saiki's summer slid away with barely a foot note's notice. He loved summer when the only time he was forced into to public was when he had a definite task: go to the store, pick up your father, etc. This limited social interaction and simultaneously allowed him to guilt his parents into buying him more coffee jelly. The pattern of summer lured him into a sense of security, and the school year slid into to view long before it had a right to.

Camillia's summer was much the opposite. Having finally unpacked her suitcase into the new confines of a new room, she had finally settled into a slight schedule when her mom announced that touring for Sora's new university would begin.

One of the places Sora applied was back in Ohio, so this was slightly exciting to Camillia. Maybe she could finally go back and see her friends. Maybe move in with one, as an exchange student? But before that idea got off the ground, her mom downed it with a "We lived there once, no need to see it again."

This did however, spark a tour of Kyoto for Doshishana University and Kyoto University. Kyoto was a nice enough place, if far away. The thought of Sora moving out was distressing enough that Camilla basically refused to entertain the possibility of the university. Sora was smart enough, she could manage online college from the comfort of their shared room.

Another consideration included Tokyo, slightly closer than Kyoto, and a favorite of Camilla's. The campus spiraled around downtown, and notably, was much flatter than Kyoto. The urban factor was a huge draw, providing a wealth of entertainment and food stalls to try. This visit marked the unofficial end of travel for the Yamada family in general, and exhausted most of the 'summer' fund.

From then on, Camillia stuck to the house, determined to have at least a week of solid relaxation. Unfortunately, the more she chased relaxation in the week leading up to the start of her fall term, the more unease and anxiety ate at her. With just two days til the start of term, her sister finally snapped.

"You've been pacing a hole in the carpet for days. Find something to do with yourself or I will literally attempt murder." Sora was twitching slightly by the end of this, and considering she was using the only computer monitor in the house, she was unable to escape while being productive. She was working her way through several scholarship applications, moving from her spot only when either set of adults wandered in and needed the computer.

"Sorry," Camillia muttered, slightly apathetically. "I'm just really nervous about the start of term."

She had her sister's full attention now, "What's up? Usually, you don't care about reintroducing yourself to classmates and teachers." Sora was right about that at least, for while Camillia was an introvert by nature, she wasn't shy. In fact, on more than one occasion, Camillia had been known to interrupt class and correct people about the pronunciation of their last name.

"It's not that. I'm more worried about what people will think of me." At this Camilla gestured to herself, and then to the closet which held the first school uniform she'd ever wear. Both Camilla and Sora were considered Japanese back in America, even if her father was technically a mixed race. Here the visual differences between the two sisters and the general population were nearly noticeable: their faces weren't quite as round and they were rather tall. In addition, even after a full summer of practice, Camillia's Japanese retained that strange lilt. It was not obvious that the two were not from Japan originally, but the fact that Camillia was transferring into a small school like PK Academy meant it would not be long before the whole school knew.

"All this over not fitting in? Yeesh. Are you in grade school or what?" This wasn't an unkind rebuke, rather one laced with an underlying message: You can't change what you look like and worrying will hardly help. Camillia nodded slowly, catching her drift. "Besides, your shining personality," sarcasm was heavy in Sora's tone now, "will always be what drives people away." Punctuated with an eye roll, this statement had them both smirking.

At some point though, their aunt had entered the room. Hanabi looked appalled at this, snapping, "Enough girls! Stop fighting or I will separate you." Overbearing and badly timed, both girls grimaced and turned to face her. Hanabi was a small woman but carried an authoritative presence with her every movement. A more traditional Japanese build with an emphasis on the white pastel skin allowed the girls to see a small flush of anger and embarrassment spreading on her face. "Apologize this instant." With a glance, appeasing Hanabi was determined more important than finishing their battle of wits, so they both gave muted apologies and called it a draw.

"You're going to be late you moron!" That was Sora, three inches from her ear at god awful o'clock in the morning.

"You could leave without me!" This was suggested with a note of hope in her voice, because of two reasons: Sora would leave Camillia if the latter wasn't ready, and if that happened, Camillia could put off school for another day. Just as Camillia was beginning to consider this an actual option, Sora snatched the pink bowtie from her hands and affixed it onto the uniform. By this point, Sora had also somehow managed to drag Camillia to the door and picked up the shoes. Through sheer willpower and probably a good bit of brute strength, Sora had managed to get Camillia farther in her wake up routine than Camillia had managed on her own.

The ride was too short for comfort. Suddenly she was opening the door of the car, stepping out into the breezy morning and staring up at the gates to her new school. Here goes nothing. If I hate it, I only have 2 years to go. Then I can ship myself right back to Ohio. Joining the stream of students, she took her first step towards the school assembly.

Saiki woke up the morning of day one in a distinctly dissatisfied mood. School brought noise and disruption and effort when all he really wanted was to bury his head 200 meters in the sand and finally have some quiet.

But that wasn't normal. So Saiki simply sighed, dressed, and resigned himself to another year of normalcy. He hoped.

The way to school was interrupted by an errand pouch and a truck, which was safely averted via his telekinesis. It was slightly astonishing that a limited number of people realized his powers considering how often things 'just worked out' when they otherwise would not have. As he reflected on the nature of his powers and their odd origin, his feet carried him to the school assembly. He vaguely noticed that the English speakers' mind was among the crowd, before getting distracted by Nendou the Thoughtless.

Saiki already knew today would be trouble. His mood worsened.

Author's Note: Alright so take this to tide you over? Real life definitely got in the way of writing this, but here you go. Also sorry for the weird formatting, I'm still figuring out this plaltform.

Read and review, please!


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